Pirelli to bring “around 4500” tyres to Abu Dhabi for race/testing

Pirelli motorsport boss Mario Isola has revealed that “around 4500” tyres will be brought to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to cover all sessions of the weekend as well as the two-day official Formula 1 test afterwards.

The selection of tyres for Abu Dhabi are the softest compounds available, the with C3, C4 and C5’s being allocated to teams, the fourth race of the year with this selection following Monaco, Canada and Singapore.
 
But the amount in total will be over double the usual quantity, having to provide testing tyres for 2020, including the 18-inch tyres which are to be introduced into Formula 2 next year and F1 in 2021.
 
“Abu Dhabi marks the end of another very long season,” said Isola. “But the work still continues for us after the grand prix, with a series of tests for both Formula 1 and Formula 2, using 13-inch tyres as well as 18-inch tyres.
 
“In total, we’ll bringing around 4500 tyres to Abu Dhabi, for racing and testing: more than double the usual quantity.”
 
The F1 test after the race is to be used to identify whether the proposed 2020 tyres will be used or a revert back to the 2019 tyres, due to several complaints about them in previous tests.
 
“The two-day official F1 test after the race will be particularly important, as it gives a chance for the teams to compare 2019 to 2020 tyres in representative conditions and with specifically adapted cars for the first time,” he added.
 
“Before then, we have one final grand prix to complete.
 
“There’s a strong chance that we could see more lap records broken again over the weekend, with the teams now having maximised their knowledge of the 2019 tyres.”